


A Warm Bath

by Katherine



Category: Doctor Dolittle - Hugh Lofting
Genre: Doctor Dolittle's Garden, First Person, Gen, Jam, Narrated by Tommy Stubbins, washing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:48:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22352095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine/pseuds/Katherine
Summary: "I can wash myself," the wasp said.I am, of course, writing this as if I heard it directly.
Kudos: 4





	A Warm Bath

**Author's Note:**

> "One evening he ate so much that he fell right into the pot and lay there on his back fast asleep, blissfully drowning in his favourite marmalade. We had to fish him out and give him a warm bath, because of course his wings and everything were all stuck together with the jam. In this the white mouse assisted us, as no one else's hands were small enough to wash a wasp's legs and face without doing damage." — _Doctor Dolittle's Garden_ by Hugh Lofting Part Two, Chapter 3: Tangerine

"I can wash myself," the wasp said.

I am, of course, writing this as if I heard it directly. As a matter of strict fact, I was miles from being as able with the insect languages as was the great Doctor Dolittle. But the Doctor translated for the rest of us as we went along.

Tangerine the wasp was waving his sticky legs slowly, sleepily replete, while the white mouse deftly bathed him, and a number of us watched. Polynesia the parrot was perched well up out of the way of any splashes, whether of orange jam or of warm water. She ruffled her feathers, amused, then smoothed them down, twisting to preen her grey wing feathers and then her striking crimson tail.

By the time that the white mouse was gently drying the wasp with a tiny cloth (the Doctor had neatly cut a very small square from a red-spotted handkerchief, much to his housekeeper Dab-Dab's displeasure) Tangerine was a little more active.

A feast and then a time being tended to would be an enjoyable thing for most people, animals included. Still, it had been somewhat difficult. I had to wonder whatever even the Doctor could have done without the help of the white mouse's small, precise paws.

I rather hoped that Tangerine had learned his lesson about over indulgence. It would be very helpful if he refrained from again falling into marmalade.


End file.
